The Penultimate Airbender
by MasterFirebender84
Summary: It was the eve of Tenzin's wedding when he received the news. "You...y-you can't be serious, Father-" "I am serious," his father sternly interrupted, his voice firm with grave grief & sadness, but also full of great strength. "H-How long?" asked Tenzin.


Ah, Friday night, a great time for relaxation and release of stess. Well, that is for people who don't work on Friday nights like I do. :P Again, just another one of the little blurbs that popped into my mind and demanded to be released to the Avatar fandom. Do with it what you will, but I quite like it. :) Enjoy and review! :D

For those of you reading my fanon, "The Promise: Part One", I will update the next chapter tomorrow before I go in to work at noon. Be sure to keep an eye out, and have a comfy chair ready! :3

**DISCLAIMER**: I do not own "Avatar: The Last Airbender". The show and its characters belong to Mike and Bryan, the brillant geniuses behind one of the greatest cartoon shows in the history of cartoons. Their work is legendary, and I salute them for it. I also do not own "The Last Airbender: Legend of Korra" or any of the characters associated with it. I am merely a fanboy who is eagerly awaiting the return of one of the greatest shows ever created.

**The Penultimate Airbender**

The soft moonlight that streamed in through the open window seemed to beguile the extreme heaviness of the news that surged through Tenzin's ears, ravaging his mind with the impossible yet completely factual truth. "You…y-you can't be serious, Father-"

"I _am_ serious," his father sternly interrupted, his voice firm with grave grief and sadness, but also full of great strength. "Despite my cheerful and optimistic nature, I would never joke about a matter as serious as this."

Tenzin gulped down what tasted like nervous bile, his ocean-blue eyes churning with countless scattered emotions as he stared at his father, whose elderly face and short gray beard were tenderly illuminated in the aura of Yue's light, as if sanctifying the legendary Avatar and imbuing him with the courage to deliver this unexpected news. "H-How long?" the young Master Airbender managed to ask, grasping the edge of the table as if it were his last true bastion to reality.

"That depends on the question," sagely mused Aang, his stormy gray eyes startlingly piercing and yet full of infinite wisdom. "How long do I have to live, or how long have I known of my impending death?"

"Both," stated Tenzin, beads of trembling sweat dotting his bald head, the salty droplets tracing the light blue arrow that adorned his bare cranium, the mark of his father that he had earned through years of discipline and focus in the art of Airbending.

"To answer the first question," began Aang, "I have about a month or so left to live. That still leaves me time to…" The Avatar faltered, struggling to compose himself just as much as his youngest son was trying to. "…to say good-bye to everyone. As for how long I've known, Avatar Roku visited me in a dream last night and told me. Because of my one-hundred years frozen in the Avatar State, my human spirit was significantly weakened, drastically shortening my life-span to nearly a fraction of what a normal Avatar would live. Avatar Kyoshi, the oldest Avatar in history, lived to be two-hundred and thirty years old; I won't even live to see my sixty-sixth year."

The words stabbed cold, iron spikes in Tenzin's already fractured heart, forcing tears to spring into his cerulean eyes, the eyes he had inherited from his mother and through which were displaying their own version of minor Waterbending by way of falling tears. "Does…does Mother know?" he chokingly asked, the tears streaking down to his chin and clinging to his pointed beard, which was dark brown in color.

"Yes," nodded Aang, blunt and straight-forward in his response, "as do your siblings, Kya and Bumi. Your sister took the news very hard, as did your brother, but your mother…" Even now, Aang could see the shattered brokenness that was his wife of many countless decades, how heart-broken and utterly _crushed_ she had been when he told her of his imminent death. Even now, he could see all the years he spent with his Forever Girl, his eternal soul mate, his Katara, flash before his aged eyes, flooding his soul with a torrent of regret and despair that threatened to collapse his heart right then. "She took the news the worst of all," finally said Aang, looking up towards the moon, as if the long-lost Princess of the Northern Water Tribe could help him to ease the aching pain in his heart, to lessen the agony of leaving so many behind.

"Does anyone else know?" asked Tenzin, wiping away his tears and standing up to his normal height, wanting to appear strong in front of the man he had admired all of his life.

Aang shook his head. "No. Tomorrow is supposed to be a joyous day, the day of your wedding to Pema, and I don't want to be the one person to ruin such a special day in your life. The only people who know are me, you, your mother, and your siblings; that's it. Not even your Uncle Sokka knows. As my time to pass into the Spirit World draws nearer, I will tell everyone else." Giving his son a warm smile, he added, "For the time being, I can at least spend time with the people who matter most to me."

"Aren't you upset, though?" asked Tenzin, seeming shocked by his father's calm demeanor. "You're _dying_, Father!"

"Please, Tenzin," hushed Aang, "keep quiet. You don't want to awaken your bride-to-be in the middle of the night, do you?"

That seemed to catch the young Airbender's attention, leading him to relent and sigh as he said, "No, Father. Pema needs her rest. Tomorrow is for her, after all."

"Come on," quietly chuckled Aang, "you're being modest, my boy! Tomorrow is for the _both_ of you, not just her." A fond light gleamed in Aang's eyes as he reminiscently said, "Why, I remember the day when I married your mother, how beautiful she looked walking down that aisle, that warm, loving smile making her whole face shine like a thousand moons…" Before he lost himself to the ebbs and flows of transcendent time, which would take him back to that sacred and unforgettable day, the Avatar pulled himself back to the present, sighing as he said, "To answer your question, son, I am very sad to know that I'll be leaving you all so soon."

"But you seem so calm about it," retorted Tenzin.

"I only appear calm because I don't want to upset your mother any more than she already is," reasoned Aang. "I'm just as broken and disheartened as she is, and I don't want to make her feel any worse in the last month that I'll be with her in this world. When you raise your children with Pema, you'll come to realize that sometimes that you have to stay strong for your family even when you feel like curling up and dying in the darkness of desolation and despair."

Stepping up to Tenzin, Aang placed a firm yet gentle hand on his son's shoulder as he said, "Tenzin, I've lived a blessed life, even if it's not going to be as long as I would have hoped for, but not even I am immortal. Like the cycle of the seasons, the cycle of the Avatar must go on. Soon, the time of the Air Nomad Avatar will end, giving way to the legacy of the new Water Tribe Avatar. I've done many things in my life: I've realized my destiny as the Avatar; ended the Hundred Year War with the Fire Nation; built the United Republic of Nations from the Fire Nation colonies; married the love of my life and helped give life to three wonderful children, one of whom I take great pride and joy in."

"I thought you didn't play favorites, Father?" joked Tenzin, trying to make the tense air around them dissipate in the wake of a son's love for his father.

Aang knowingly chuckled as he said, "No, I don't play favorites, not when it comes to your siblings. I love all of you equally, but, out of all of my children, _you_ have made me the most proud. Ever since the day your mother and I discovered your Airbending abilities, you've helped to give me hope for the future of the Air Nomads. The day I gave you this" – he pointed to Tenzin's head arrow – "I knew that the future of every Airbender was secure. I knew from that day that if anyone was to teach my successor how to Airbend, it would be my own son, the greatest Master Airbender the world's ever seen in over a hundred years."

"But how will our family survive without you?" uncertainly asked Tenzin, very much aware of the fast-approaching world in which his father would be gone, leaving the Four Nations to turn to both the North and South Poles for any signs of the new Avatar. "We'll fall apart without you."

"Tenzin," firmly said Aang in one of his signature tones, one that indicated he was about to deliver a speech, "a family is not built upon one person. It is built upon everyone in it, all of the individuals who love and support each other to the end of eternity and back. Even if one link is broken, new bonds will be forged, bonds that will be even stronger than those that came before. As long as you all have each other, you will be able to bear the grief of my passing."

"But what are we going to do about the new Avatar?" asked Tenzin, again looking towards the future.

"The new Avatar will be revealed to you all when the time is right," replied Aang. "The hands of Fate are always turning, and not even I can tell you if or even when you'll meet my successor, but you must promise me that you will teach them Airbending when they come to you. Without the four elements, the Avatar cannot maintain balance in the world. Your task is an important one, Tenzin; I hope you realize that."

"I do, Father," assuredly nodded Tenzin, "and I promise on everything that the Air Nomads stood for that I will teach the new Avatar Airbending."

Aang smiled and nodded, knowing that he had already secured a teacher for his successor, but a sense of emptiness and sorrow still gripped at his heart. He embraced Tenzin, much to his son's surprise, as he said, "Promise me that you'll look after your mother and siblings when I'm gone, Tenzin. They'll need your comfort and support when I die."

Tenzin hugged his father back, quietly saying, "I promise, Father."

Aang began to tremble, tears sliding down his aged cheeks as he lowly murmured, with an unbelievable amount of choked emotion, "I love you, Tenzin. I love you so very much, and I'm going to miss you so much when I'm gone. Know, my son, that you have made me so very proud of you throughout your life, even before you became an Airbender. Tomorrow is one of the most momentous days of your life, and I'm glad that at least I'll still be around long enough to see you be married to the woman you hold so dear to your heart."

Tenzin's tear flowed unrestrained once more, a ragged sob bursting out of his mouth as he said, "I love you too, Father. You've been my inspiration and my strength for as long as I can remember. All my life, I've always looked up to you, always wanting to make you proud of me through my hard work and diligence. You are the most courageous man I know, and I am _proud_ to be your son."

Father and son stood there in their embrace, quietly sobbing in the dark of the night as they poured out their hearts in a way that only a father and son could. Finally, after several eternal moments, the two men came out of their embrace, wiping away their tears as Aang said, "Let's get you to bed, Tenzin." Lightly smiling, he added, "The last thing Pema needs is for her future husband to be grouchy and groggy on the day of his wedding."

Tenzin softly chuckled, shaking his head as he said, "Always thinking of others before yourself as usual, Father." Walking off in the direction of his bedroom, which was down the hall and well away from Pema's room on the opposite side of the house, he added, "I guess some things never do change, do they?"

As Tenzin disappeared around the corner, Aang quietly smiled and said to himself, "They certainly don't, Tenzin." With one lasting look towards the full moon, he said, "Just like the rising and falling of the tides and the cycle of the Avatar, some things truly never change." Hearing Tenzin enter his room, closing the sliding door behind him, Aang lovingly smiled and whispered, "And I will always love you, my son, even if I am in another body. Nothing will ever change that."

With that, the legendary Avatar Aang, mighty hero of the Hundred Year War, humbly made his way back towards his own room, knowing that at least, for another night, he could be with Katara.

And he intended to make each and every moment with her last as long as the lifetime they had shared together.


End file.
